Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives, or AHHA, is hosting an open house Saturday as a sendoff to two directors with expiring terms in January.

Additionally, the organization is celebrating past achievements, future goals and the people who have helped make them possible.

Nezzie Wade, who is president of the organization’s board, said the mission of AHHA is to create “bridging communities,” to help the homeless transition from homelessness through the implementation of public education, advocacy and policy development. Visitors to the open house can expect to learn about recent court rulings in favor of the homeless, alternative living options as well as committees that advocate for the rights of the homeless.

“We want to get them off of the street and into a safe, stable place,” she said. “All the programs today have some mechanism that doesn’t make it easy to access them.”

Wade is referring to various barriers that exist within services provided to the homeless, such as the need for an address. What she, along with AHHA, are working towards are safe places where the homeless can live in tiny homes, or tents, while they work to stabilize their lives.

“When communities collaborate and cooperate, there are amazing success examples,” she said. “It’s happening quite successfully in other areas.”

While the vision may conjure fears of repeating what was the Palco Marsh, also known as “Devil’s Playground,” Wade says this is far from it. Bridging communities are organized spaces with agreed on living conditions. Basic support services, such as garbage disposal and hygiene facilities, are also an important component of bridging communities, she said.

“The judgment people have about the conditions people are working with is really narrowly scoped,” Wade said. “Attending the open house gives (the public) the opportunity for conversation, it may broaden the lens … and they can ask FAQs.”

With a video about homeless HSU students that recently went viral, along with the thousands displaced by fires this year, Wade believes the conversation about homelessness is clarifying.

“That’s the situation of homelessness; it puts context around what it means to be homeless and how it can happen to anyone,” Wade said. “If we don’t have housing and criminalize people because they’re sleeping in public, where do you draw line about how you fix that and whose responsibility it is?”